The Life of Jesus Christ for the Young eBook

In those few years that one gold coin, of twenty francs,
had increased to ten thousand francs. And this
illustrates the way in which Jesus the heavenly Master
rewards those who use their talents for him.
See how he teaches this lesson, when he says—­“Whosoever
shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a
cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple,
verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose
his reward.” St. Matt, x: 42.
And in another place we are told that the reward shall
be “an hundred fold,” and shall run on
into “everlasting life.” St. Matt,
xix: 29. How sweetly some one has thus written
about

THE REWARD OF HEAVEN.

“Light after darkness,
gain after loss,
Strength after weariness,
crown after cross;
Sweet after bitter, song after
sigh,
Home after wandering, praise
after cry;
Sheaves after sowing, sun
after rain,
Light after mystery, peace
after pain;
Joy after sorrow, calm after
blast,
Rest after weariness, sweet
rest at last;
Near after distant, gleam
after gloom,
Love after loneliness, life
after tomb.
After long agony, rapture
of bliss,
Christ is the pathway leading
to this!”

The last lesson from Olivet is the lesson about the
rewards. And taking these lessons together, let
us remember that they are—­the lesson about
the Master: the lesson about the servants:
the lesson about the talents: and the
lesson about the rewards.

The Collect for the thirteenth Sunday after Trinity
is a very suitable prayer to offer after meditating
on the lessons from Olivet:

“Almighty and merciful God, of whose only gift
it cometh that thy faithful people do unto thee true
and laudable service: Grant, we beseech thee,
that we may so faithfully serve thee in this life,
that we fail not finally to attain thy heavenly promises;
which exceed all that we can desire; through the merits
of Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN!”

THE LORD’S SUPPER

We are approaching now the end of our Saviour’s
life. The last week has come, and we are in the
midst of it. This is called Passion week.
We commonly use this word passion to denote
anger. But the first and true meaning of the
word, and of the Latin word from which it comes, is—­suffering.
And this is the sense in which we find the word used
in Acts i: 3. There, St. Luke, who wrote
the Acts, is speaking of Christ’s appearing
to the apostles, after his resurrection, and he uses
this language: “To whom he showed himself
alive, after his passion;” or after his
suffering and death.